Microsoft has launched a new Xbox video games console that it claims will
become the single device that users need to control TV, video games, music
and entertainment in the living room.

At an event at its US headquarters in Redmond, Washington state, the electronics giant boasted that new device’s voice and gesture controls will allow users to interact with it more naturally.

By saying ‘Xbox On’, players will be able to both turn the device on and allow it to recognise who is using it.

For the first time it will also integrate television, so users can move straight from TV to gaming or music.

Speaking at the launch, which was streamed around the world, Don Mattrick, president of the interactive entertainment business at Microsoft, said: “Today we put you at the centre of a new generation in the living room - where your games look and feel like nothing else, where your TV becomes more intelligent, where all of your entertainment comes alive in one place.

“Team Xbox is on a new mission - design and build an all in one system to light up a new generation of games, TV and entertainment.”

The approach pitches Microsoft against a growing number of rivals for the living room, with Sky and BT increasingly seeking to add internet connections to their TV products. Microsoft has also commissioned an exclusive TV series for Xbox from Steve Spielberg based on the Halo video game franchise.

Despite its integrated functions, the company maintained that video gaming remained at the heart of the console and said it had ten times the power of its predecessor.

It announced 15 new titles from its own studios and claimed a range of new titles will also be revealed at the E3 video games conference next month.

The company was criticised, however, for saying only that it would launch the Xbox One “later this year”, and for not yet announcing a price.

The black console, with a new Kinect camera sensor and game pad, is the successor to the hugely successful Xbox 360 which sold a reported 77 million consoles around the world.

The new machine, which will released later this year, sees Microsoft add a blu-ray drive to its console and the use of video calling service Skype.

An upgraded Kinect camera allows the device to better analyse body movements and can even read a user’s heartbeat when exercising, Microsoft said.